Present-day Internet communications represent the synthesis of technical developments begun in the 1960s. During that time period, the Defense Department developed a communication system to support communication between different United States military computer networks, and later a similar system was used to support communication between different research computer networks at United States universities.
The Internet
The Internet, like so many other high tech developments, grew from research originally performed by the United States Department of Defense. In the 1960s, Defense Department officials wanted to connect different types of military computer networks. These different computer networks could not communicate with each other because they used different types of operating systems or networking protocols.
While the Defense Department officials wanted a system that would permit communication between these different computer networks, they realized that a centralized interface system would be vulnerable to missile attack and sabotage. To avoid this vulnerability, the Defense Department required that the interface system be decentralized with no vulnerable failure points.
The Defense Department developed an interface protocol for communication between these different network computers. A few years later, the National Science Foundation (NSF) wanted to connect different types of network computers located at research institutions across the country. The NSF adopted the Defense Department's interface protocol for communication between the research computer networks. Ultimately, this combination of research computer networks would form the foundation of today's Internet.
Internet Protocols
The Defense Department's interface protocol was called the Internet Protocol (IP) standard. The IP standard now supports communication between computers and networks on the Internet. The IP standard identifies the types of services to be provided to users and specifies the mechanisms needed to support these services. The IP standard also describes the upper and lower system interfaces, defines the services to be provided on these interfaces, and outlines the execution environment for services needed in this system.
A transmission protocol, called the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), was developed to provide connection-oriented, end-to-end data transmission between packet-switched computer networks. The combination of TCP with IP (TCP/IP) forms a system or suite of protocols for data transfer and communication between computers on the Internet. The TCP/IP standard has become mandatory for use in all packet switching networks that connect or have the potential for utilizing connectivity across network or sub-network boundaries.
A computer operating on a network is assigned a unique physical address under the TCP/IP protocols. This is called an IP address. The IP address can include: (1) a network ID and number identifying a network, (2) a sub-network ID number identifying a substructure on the network, and (3) a host ID number identifying a particular computer on the sub-network. A header data field in the information packet will include source and destination addresses. The IP addressing scheme imposes a sensible addressing scheme that reflects the internal organization of the network or sub-network. All information packets transmitted over the Internet will have a set of IP header fields containing this IP address.
A router is located on a network and is used to regulate the transmission of information packets into and out of computer networks and within sub-networks. Routers are referred to by a number of names including Home Agent, Home Mobility Manager, Home Location Register, Foreign Agent, Serving Mobility Manager, Visited Location Register, and Visiting Serving Entity. A router interprets the logical address of an information packet and directs the information packet to its intended destination. Information packets addressed between computers on the sub-network do not pass through the router to the greater network, and as such, these sub-network information packets will not clutter the transmission lines of the greater network. If an information packet is addressed to a computer outside the sub-network, the router forwards the packet onto the greater network.
The TCP/IP network includes protocols that define how routers will determine the transmittal path for data through the network. Routing decisions are based upon information in the IP header and entries maintained in a routing table. A routing table possesses information for a router to determine whether to accept the communicated information packet on behalf of a destination computer or pass the information packet onto another router in the network or sub-network. The routing table's address data enables the router to accurately forward the information packets.
The routing table can be configured manually with routing table entries or with a dynamic routing protocol. In a dynamic routing protocol, routers update routing information with periodic information packet transmissions to other routers on the network. This is referred to as advertising. The dynamic routing protocol accommodates changing network topologies, such as the network architecture, network structure, layout of routers, and interconnection between hosts and routers. Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) information packets are used to update routing tables with this changing system topology.
The IP-Based Mobility System
The Internet protocols were originally developed with an assumption that Internet users would be connected to a single, fixed network. With the advent of portable computers and cellular wireless communication systems, the movement of Internet users within a network and across network boundaries has become common. Because of this highly mobile Internet usage, the implicit design assumption of the Internet protocols has been violated.
In an IP-based mobile communication system, the mobile communication device (e.g. cellular phone, pager, computer, etc.) is called a mobile node. Typically, a mobile node changes its point of attachment to a foreign network while maintaining connectivity to its home network. A mobile node may also change its point of attachment between sub-networks in its home network or foreign network. The mobile node will always be associated with its home network and sub-network for IP addressing purposes and will have information routed to it by routers located on the home and foreign network. Generally, there is also usually a correspondence node, which may be mobile or fixed, communicating with the mobile node.
IP Mobility Protocols
During the formative years since the Internet was first established, Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) was recognized and adopted as the standard version of the Internet Protocol. With the advent of mobile IP and proliferation of computers and computer systems linked to the Internet, various limitations in the IPv4 standard and associated procedures have developed and emerged. In response, new standards are evolving and emerging.
The most pressing limitation in the IPv4 standard is the restriction on the number of possible IP addresses imposed by the 32-bit address field size. A newer standard, the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPV6), increases the size of the available address space 400% to 128 bits, which vastly increases the number of available addresses. While the 32-bit address field provides 232 or approximately 4 billion IP address possibilities, a 128-bit field provides 2128 (340×1012) IP address possibilities.
A number of benefits emerge from this vastly larger available address field. First, there is little chance of exhausting the number of IP addresses. Second, a large address field allows aggregation of many network-prefix routers into a single network-prefix router. Finally, the large address pool allows nodes to auto configure using simple mechanisms. One practical advantage as a result is elimination of designated foreign agents to route information packets to a visiting mobile node on a foreign network.
IP Mobility Care-of Addressing
In a mobile IP network, nodes will transmit notification and discovery information packets onto the network to advertise their presence on the network and solicit advertisements from other nodes. While on a foreign network, a mobile node will be assigned a care-of address that will be used to route information packets to the foreign network and the attached mobile node. An advertisement from a router on the foreign network will inform a mobile node that is attached to a foreign network. The mobile node will typically create a care-of address on the foreign network, which it will transmit to its home network in an information packet to register the care-of address. Information packets addressed to the mobile node on the home network have the care-of address added. This information packet containing the care-of address will then be forwarded and routed to the mobile node on the foreign network by a router on the foreign network according to the care-of address.
Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (“AAA”)
In an IP-based mobile communications system, the mobile node changes its point of attachment to the network while maintaining network connectivity. When a mobile node travels outside its home administrative domain, however, the mobile node must communicate through multiple domains in order to maintain network connectivity with its home network. While connected to a foreign network controlled by another administrative domain, network servers must authenticate, authorize and collect accounting information for services rendered to the mobile node. This authentication, authorization, and accounting activity is called “AAA”, and AAA servers on the home and foreign network perform the AAA activities for each network.
Authentication is the process of proving one's claimed identity, and security systems on a mobile IP network will often require authentication of the system user's identity before authorizing a requested activity. The AAA server authenticates the identity of an authorized user and authorizes the mobile node's requested activity. Additionally, the AAA server will also provide the accounting function including tracking usage and charges for use of transmissions links between administrative domains.
Another function for the AAA server is to support secured transmission of information packets by storing and allocating security associations. Security associations refer to those encryption protocols, nonces, and keys required to specify and support encrypting an information packet transmission between two nodes in a secure format. The security associations are a collection of security contexts existing between the nodes that can be applied to the information packets exchanged between them. Each context indicates an authentication algorithm and mode, a shared or secret key or appropriate public/private key pair, and a style of replay protection.
Route Optimization
Route optimization allows the Mobile Node (MN) to establish a direct link a correspondent node instead of using a care-of address forwarding and encapsulation operation. Route optimization, as its name implies, optimizes the routing efficiency to a Mobile Node, and IPv6 protocol automatically establishes route optimization by default. Because the default procedures in IPv6 protocol, there is a lack of control over the selection and authorization of route optimization feature in the Mobile IPv6 protocol. In the prior art, there is no mechanism to control the route optimization feature. There is a need to control the route optimization feature to control billing options for subscriber charges. Moreover, there is also a security reason to prevent route optimization and force the user to forward transmissions through the home network for monitoring purposes, instead of permitting a direct link between the correspondent node and the mobile node (MN). There is a need for a mechanism to control the route optimization authorization feature.